The Crow Reboot Director Corin Hardy Going Back To The Graphic Novel

Corin Hardy, recently announced as the director of the long-in gestation reboot of ‘The Crow,’ has promised his new take on the cult supernatural revenge tale will go back to the original source material.

Hardy tells Fangoria, “I’m a huge, huge fan of both the first film and James O’Barr’s graphic novel. I was obsessed with ‘The Crow’ when I was growing up.

"When I heard about the remake, what I thought could be very interesting today, 20 years later, especially with this whole Marvel Universe that’s happened is that the Crow always stood as an outsider to me. I kind of felt he would be the right character for me if I got the chance to do it.

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"And now that I have gotten the chance to do it, I’m very much going back to the graphic novel, particularly looking into the illustrations themselves as much as the story, and picking out all those beautiful ideas and details that haven’t really been used yet.”

Coming from a background in short films and music videos, with only one as-yet unreleased feature film to his name - upcoming horror movie ‘The Hallow’ - Hardy is reported to have landed the job of replacing the outgoing F. Javier Gutiérrez (who quit to direct the next ‘Ring’ movie) after being endorsed by Edgar Wright.

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The withdrawal of original director Gutiérrez was hardly the first bump in the road for ‘The Crow’ reboot, which has been in development hell for quite some time. Bradley Cooper and Mark Wahlberg were both linked to the undead avenger Eric Draven early on, until Luke Evans appeared to have been settled on for the role - though it’s been indicated that he too may now have abdicated the part.

This is, of course, just the latest of many troubles ‘The Crow’ series has faced over the years. Rooted in tragedy (James O’Barr having written the comic to help get over the death of his girlfriend), the 1994 original was marred by the tragic on-set death of star Brandon Lee. Three sequels followed, each more sub-par than the last, plus a short-lived TV spin-off.

Hopes are clearly high that ‘The Crow’ can be really done justice this time around, so it’s little surprise that Hardy seems to hint this may be intended as a franchise-launcher:

“I also want to open the story up in such a way that the Crow is now part of a world where there are the Marvel movies and the ‘Dark Knight’ movies.

“I intend it to be incredibly emotional and brutal, and all the things you’d want from a ‘Crow’ film. I want to make a movie that I would have wanted to see, as a huge fan of ‘The Crow.’”

No release date has been set for ‘The Crow,’ but it is expected to begin photography in the spring. Meanwhile, Corin Hardy’s ‘The Hallow’ will have its world premiere this coming Sunday, 25 January, at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Picture Credit: Edward R Pressman Film, Caliber Press